ded to set out for a camp in the mountains, where game would
likely be found.

"We'll occupy three camps I have in view. From the first we can go to
the second by taking several bullboats that will be waiting for us, and
shooting the rapids in the river. That would be an experience you boys
might enjoy," remarked the stockman as they rode around the valley to
get a comprehensive grasp upon the way in which this enterprising
settler carried on a big cattle ranch.

Reddy seemed to have been picked out by the owner to keep with them.
Frank was glad of this, for somehow he had come to entertain a fancy for
the smiling young cowboy.

"Rapids, did you say?" exclaimed Jerry, his face lighting up with
rapture. "Why, that would tickle us from the ground up. I've always
wanted to run through some little Niagara. Frank, here, has done it up
in Maine, so he tells us. I hope what you have will beat his experience
all hollow."

"Well, they are some rapids, I understand," replied the other, smiling.

"And if I could only be on the shore, to see you shoot down, it would
afford me the greatest pleasure in the world. Not that I don't want to
go through, too, but my first duty is toward securing all these
wonderful events in an imperishable way by taking a picture. Some
scoffers may doubt a story, but pictures never lie."

"That shows your innocence, Will," remarked Jerry. "Why, I've seen
fellows standing beside the fish they caught, which I knew myself to be
only ten inches long, and yet the cunning photographer had arranged it
so that it looked all of two feet."

"I'm surprised that you, with all your experience, shouldn't know that,"
said Frank, pretending to frown.

"You mistook my meaning, that's all. What I intended to say was that
_my_ pictures would never lie," affirmed Will sturdily.

"Hear! hear! Somebody rub him on the back, please! But joking aside,
Will, I'm ready to back you up on that score. The only fault I find with
you is your ambition to take a fellow in every pickle he happens to drop
into," and Jerry made a wry face as he remembered a number of scenes in
which he had figured, that were wont to excite his chums to uproarious
laughter at such times as they looked at the faithful reproductions in
their album at the clubhouse.

In this pleasant way the day passed, and evening found them eager to
complete their preparations for the morrow. Mr. Mabie answered every
question fired at him by the anxious young spor